January 12, 2011

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President Barack Obama meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri this morning, as Lebanon's government is on the verge of collapse, with Hezbollah's threatened pull-out of the government. The New York Times reports:

Hezbollah and its allies threatened to withdraw from Lebanon’s government on Wednesday, a move that would force it to dissolve and deepen a crisis over a United Nations-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a former prime minister.

The threat returned Lebanon to familiar terrain, where Hezbollah and its foes have wrestled over the direction of the small Mediterranean country since Rafik Hariri was killed in a bombing along Beirut’s seafront in 2005. Twenty-two other people died in the attack. Since then, the tribunal has investigated his death and is now widely expected to indict members of Hezbollah, the country’s powerful Shiite Muslim movement.

Hezbollah has denied involvement and denounced the tribunal as an “Israeli project.” It has urged his son, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, to reject its findings. Mr. Hariri, who was in Washington on Wednesday to meet President Obama, has so far resisted the pressure.

A withdrawal by Hezbollah’s ministers and their allies from the government would mark the worst crisis in Lebanon since 2008, when an agreement reached in Qatar achieved a truce to end sectarian clashes that killed 81 people and brought Lebanon to the brink of a renewal of its 15-year civil war, which ended in 1990.

Obama also spoke last night with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which had been involved in negotiations with Syria over a possible Lebanon deal that appear to have broken down.

UPDATE: Hariri is returning to Lebanon after his government has collapsed with Hezbollah's withdrawal.

The resignations do not become effective until President Michel Sleiman accepts them, which it is anticipated he will do upon Hariri's return.

"The efforts by the Hizballah-led coalition to collapse the Lebanese government only demonstrate their own fear and determination to block the government's ability to conduct its business and advance the aspirations of all of the Lebanese people," the White House said in a readout of Obama's meeting with Hariri.

Hariri is expected to stop in France en route back to Lebanon.

Meantime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit and with Omani and Qatari leaders attending a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Doha, Qatar today.

Here is the full readout of the Obama-Hariri meeting:

President Obama met today with Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon. The President commended the Prime Minister for his steadfast leadership and efforts to reach peace, stability, and consensus in Lebanon under difficult circumstances. The efforts by the Hizballah-led coalition to collapse the Lebanese government only demonstrate their own fear and determination to block the government’s ability to conduct its business and advance the aspirations of all of the Lebanese people. The President and Prime Minister reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence, implementing all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and continuing a wide-ranging and long-term partnership between the United States and Lebanon.

During their meeting, the President stressed the importance of the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as a means to help end the era of political assassinations with impunity in Lebanon. The President and Prime Minister specifically discussed united efforts with France, Saudi Arabia, and other key international and regional actors to maintain calm in Lebanon and ensure that the work of the Tribunal continues unimpeded by third parties. The President and Prime Minister expressed their determination to achieve both stability and justice in Lebanon during this challenging period of government volatility, and agreed that all parties should avoid threats or actions that could cause instability.

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War journalist Nir Rosen in his 2010 book "Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World" describes the neocon policy during the Bush administration, “Much as it had in Iraq, Gaza, and Somalia, the United States appeared determined to provoke a civil war in Lebanon.” Of course, fomenting civil wars and destabilizing the Muslim enemies of Israeli expansionism has been a longtime Israeli strategy. This policy was enunciated in February 1982 by Israeli strategist Oded Yinon writing in the World Zionist Organization magazine Kivunim. Yinon relished the Iraq-Iran War which he hoped would lead to civil war and fragmentation of Iraq, Israel's most feared enemy. It did not. However, the Zionist neocons then lied us into an unnecessary invasion of Iraq in 2003 which did foment a civil war. The Israel Lobby neocons pretend to be about spreading democracy whereas they actually are about destabilization. Israel Lobby neocon Michael A. Ledeen wrote in his 2002 book The War Against the Terror Masters: "First and foremost, we must bring down the terror regimes, beginning with the big three: Iran, Iraq, and Syria." "Stability is an unworthy American mission…. We do not want stability in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia…The real issue is not whether, but how best to destabilize."

The US Israel Lobby-pushed-and-financed Hariri investigation has one purpose: the destabilization of Lebanon. And who has benefited? Israel, of course. Syria was immediately fingered and told to withdraw its peacekeeping forces. Unlike Israel, Syria complied with the UN resolution; Israel has been in violation of UN Security Council resolutions calling for its withdrawal from Palestine (plus parts of Syria and Lebanon) since 1967.
So how do we know the Mossad didn’t do it? They’re so clever at murder cover-ups: look at the dead Iranian nuclear scientists. As professor Geoffrey Wawro writes in his book "Quicksand: America’s Pursuit of Power in the Middle East," Israeli agents have a history of posing as Arab terrorists, throwing grenades into cafes, trying to blow up cinemas, etc. On 11/24/09, the BBC reported the arrest of an Israeli in Tel Aviv for planting a bomb under a vehicle. Turns out the bomb was a fake, and the man was a Mossad agent-in-training. The Mossad operates ostentatiously outside the law as seen with their recent Dubai murder.
Israel is bloodthirsty for another war. Inasmuch as the latest estimates are that Iran is years from acquiring the ability to build a nuke, bets are that Lebanon will be the next victim again. Rather than making peace with the Arab/Muslim world by returning the stolen land, Israel state policy has always been mass murder.

willbeheard--your comments are spot on. You provide much evidence, but it all coincides with how I remember these events going down. The present Israeli government is in a tough spot, kind of like the GOP in the US: they have each allowed extremist elements in both to gain the upper hand. Most of the commentators on here, like the first one, will have no comprehension of what you are talking about, unfortunately.

I just wish and pray that Lebanon should not fall in to a Civil War once again!! There have been lots of blood bath in this beautiful country of a beautiful nation.
I hope the Muslims and the Christians would not fall in to trap of those who love to see Lebanon again in situation like the 70's or 80's.
International Community should play the role for re-conciliation, finally it's the people of Lebanon who has to understand that it's in the greater interests of national unity and stability of the state to avoid any polarization. (The Hague, Netherlands)